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Having a issue.

I have a young dog,( 2 Yr's) training was going great. I sent him home to hunt and ran into a problem. Retrieving was good, they decided to hunt along side a river for geese and thought that the dog would spook the geese and left them in the truck. they drop a few and then brought out the dog to go get them.

The banks where about 18 ft. drop fairly steep. 60 yards river. only about 2 ft deep and 18 ft. up the other side. The owner said that he took the first part good, but could not get him up the other side. Being his first hunt I thought this was more advanced and would not have tried it. I told the owner that I would take him back and condition him.

Here is my set up, what do you think?

I will put a bumper boy on the other bank, along with a pile. I will shoot a bumper and send him on a retrieve. then send him on a pattern blind. if he has problems I will stop him with a correction, shoot another bumper into the pile and give him a right or left back. If everything goes well I will move to the next step.

Whether it's hunting, hunt tests or field trials, it's all about getting the bird. Why not drill for success, and throw NUMEROUS singles on the bank. They don't all have to be in the same place, it's about getting up the bank. After he's successful with marks, you can put out your blinds. Maybe even put out a helper and run some bird boy blinds. Teach teach teach!

Sometimes it is necessary to use much smaller increments to convince a dog they can do what seemed impossible in its entirety. The far bank is an unfamiliar, distant "barrier". You may need to simplify the presentation even more by removing the visual impedance.

Have the dog sit remotely at the bottom of the steep incline (other side).....then call him up to you. Once he learns to traverse the steep hill/bank on a recall, place an obvious bumper/bird half-way on the "path"....just work the far bank side first....then add water and distance.

It's often easier to get a dog saying "I can do that"......than it is to "make him do it".

So he was asking the dog to climb an 18 foot wall? Had the dog ever seen anything like this? If not, I would start with the dog at the bottom of a much smaller steep bank(5 or so foot), get on top and call him to me. Once successful, go stand next to the dog and toss a bumper up on the top and send the dog. Once successful, do the same thing at a bigger cliff. Sounds to me like the pup just needs to learn that he can climb a steep bank, once he figures that part out, the retrieving part like you plan will go fairly easy.

"The thing I admire about the rat tail is that it takes commitment. It's not like one day you just decide you want one, you have to grow out that bad boy and you have to repeatedly convince the hairdresser to trust you because it's a great idea."

"The thing I admire about the rat tail is that it takes commitment. It's not like one day you just decide you want one, you have to grow out that bad boy and you have to repeatedly convince the hairdresser to trust you because it's a great idea."

I have a young dog,( 2 Yr's) training was going great. I sent him home to hunt and ran into a problem. Retrieving was good, they decided to hunt along side a river for geese and thought that the dog would spook the geese and left them in the truck. they drop a few and then brought out the dog to go get them.

The banks where about 18 ft. drop fairly steep. 60 yards river. only about 2 ft deep and 18 ft. up the other side. The owner said that he took the first part good, but could not get him up the other side. Being his first hunt I thought this was more advanced and would not have tried it. I told the owner that I would take him back and condition him.

Here is my set up, what do you think?

I will put a bumper boy on the other bank, along with a pile. I will shoot a bumper and send him on a retrieve. then send him on a pattern blind. if he has problems I will stop him with a correction, shoot another bumper into the pile and give him a right or left back. If everything goes well I will move to the next step.

Keith

Sounds like you will have no control for your training scenario. That's no good. Why would you stop a dog with a correction when you are trying to get something else out of the training?